Top Five Free Apps for College Students

1. Mint - Students can keep track of their finances, all of their credit cards and students loans all in one place, then compare their average monthly spending on particular types of items to other students, families or professionals.

2. Study Aid Lite - This LITE version of STUDY AID puts a cap on the amount of Flash Cards you can make, but its no-frills interface and cheap price (free) make it a good substitute for other pricier versions. You can buy the full version for 99 cents if you like it.

3. BIGWORDS - Multi-Item Price Optimization makes BIGWORDS a convenient textbook price comparison engine. You can choose to include such trendy options as textbook rental and it even checks prices for students who are frequent shoppers on other sites for special member discounts. Unlike other retailer apps, BIGWORDS doesn't sell anything; it searches all of the reliable retailers and finds the best combination of purchases, including shipping.

4. AP Mobile - The Associated Press application is one of the first to use Apple's new push service. You can create your own "front page" and customize to your heart's content. It provides world headlines with dozens of subsections that you can turn on and off, state-wide news, local news, weather and more. The PUSH notification allows you to set up alerts for breaking news that appear like a text message as it happens.

5. Zen Bound LITE - Zen Bound (and Zen Bound LITE) is the only game that makes the list. It is both challenging and at the same time uniquely soothing. The goal, using all of the aspects of the iPhones accelerometer, is to entwine these sometimes cute, sometimes eerie wooden figures until they are fully "painted." How well you paint dictates how many flowers blossom on your cherry tree, which in turn lights the paper lanterns that guide you up to even more challenging levels.